A Response to Distrust
by ChaosKirin
Summary: A response to a challenge in a fic community. It's almost a classic whodunnit type... Someone's killing off the crew. But WHO IS IT?


**A Response to Distrust**

By E. Elizabeth Christie

In a dark corridor far from the students, Miss Davenport was dead. Not dead in the sense that she was scared that she'd forgotten to perform an important task, or dead in the sense that she was dead tired… She was actually dead, and that was a fact that Commander Goddard found wholly confusing. Also, he thought, it was quite disturbing… At the moment, though, he was more confused than he was disturbed, and he knew that shock and sorrow were going to rear their ugly heads sooner or later, even though he wasn't actually prepared for any of those emotions.

So he did what anyone would do in the situation. Reaching out a booted foot, he poked the woman in the ribs. It wasn't until then that it really hit him that the teacher with several cooking utensils embedded into her back was actually gone. She was also bleeding, which is what people with knives and spoons stuck into their spine tend to do.

Spoons? Goddard thought to himself. Briefly, he crouched down next to her, and tears came to his eyes. Not because she was dead, but because she'd been dead a while, and the smell was atrocious and quite painful. Later, he'd reflect back on the fact that his only initial reaction to Theresa Davenport's death was revulsion, but now wasn't exactly the time for reflection, or really anything other than one emotion.

He remembered that he was confused. Looking toward the partially opened door (Which was partially opened because Miss Davenport's foot was stuck in it) he noted that she'd been in the galley when she was stabbed. Besides the fact that there were several place settings sticking out of various points of her ribcage, there was also a trail of blood leading into the kitchen, and that was Commander Goddard's very first clue. Rising to his full height again and finding that the stink was somewhat less pungent from that altitude, he summoned his courage and headed through the door, which opened the rest of the way as he moved in front of it.

Later, just before he reflected on the fact that his initial reaction to Miss Davenport's death was revulsion, he'd reflect on the fact that walking into the kitchen alone was probably a bad idea. However, as previously stated, this wasn't the time nor the place for reflection.

Interestingly enough, the kitchen wasn't in any sort of horrible disarray. A dishwashing unit was open, and, judging by the fact that there was blood all over it, someone had fallen onto it. However, the force from a fall wouldn't have embedded anything into anyone's back as deeply as some of the knives and such were stuck into Miss Davenport's… Which meant she was either playing on the ceiling and fell from _there_, or, someone was present in the kitchen and pushed her into the dishwasher. The second theory was the more likely of the two.

He looked around a bit, and realized that there was something amiss. There was some sort of feedback loop between the sink and the dishwasher. If he looked out of the corner of his eye, Commander Goddard could see a very faint electrical field arching between the two. His eyes moved to the floor, and it took him a while to register the fact that there were two crackling burn scars right through the tile… And there was really only one person on board the ship that could make such a pattern.

"Bova," he said to himself.

It was at this point that he reflected on the fact that being in the kitchen alone was a bad idea. Not long after that, he remembered his initial reaction to finding Davenport's corpse, and reflected on the fact that he'd thought she smelled bad.

Suddenly, it all caught up with him, and he broke out of the kitchen at a run toward the Command Post.

He didn't know he was being watched. In the shadows, a computer, which had been pre-set to affect the gravity on the room, finished returning to its normal level. Technically, both of Goddard's theories were correct in one were to combine them. The lack of gravity in the room lifted Miss Davenport to the ceiling, because someone operated the controls to make that happen. The sudden return of gravity was the proverbial push, which was all that was needed to send the teacher crashing into the flatware.

The only real lamentable fact was that now all the dishes would need to be cleaned again.

---

Goddard never made it to the Command Post. He was met by an unfortunate troop of Gizbots on his way there, as Radu quickly found out on a mid-afternoon-pre-class-post-lunch stroll. He'd just finished finding it odd that Bova had been missing from lunch when he practically tripped on the body of the now-late Commander.

He screamed.

As luck would have it, before Radu screamed, he'd fallen into the com unit which was conveniently right next to him on the wall. This turned it on, and the result was that everyone else on the ship heard his scream and came running. As he stood there, staring down at the now-mangled body, he wondered how in the world the tiny little robots managed to do so much damage. It looked like the Commander had, at least, gotten the best of a couple of them, as several seemed to be sparking and sputtering, and in complete disrepair. Harlan arrived first, and his immediate question was, "Where did we get more than one Gizbot?"

This question was quickly followed by, "Is that Commander Goddard?"

There was another scream from just down the hall, and Rosie, followed by Suzee, appeared from behind a partition. Rosie, nearly out of breath and much pinker than usual, said, "Ithkdvthall!"

Suzee was thankfully fluent in Mercurian. "We found Davenport. Down the hall… She's dead." She, too, was out of breath, and her normally well-kept hair was flying in all directions now. Radu wondered if she had some sort of psychic talent that made it do that in a crisis.

"Dead?" Harlan asked, eyes widening. He turned and looked down the hall. Though he couldn't see Miss Davenport, he did spot Bova standing there, leaning against a console, with his arms crossed over his chest. Harlan couldn't help thinking that the Uranusian looked quite sinister. There were also the electric sparks arching between the disabled Gizbots. Perhaps…

The others had the same thought, apparently. They were all looking at Bova, too. He shrugged, which was a gesture he did so well, and said, "You had to know that not all of us were going to make it back alive."

"Bova…" Rosie began. "Miss Davenport… The Commander… They're both…" She looked toward the barely recognizable remains of Seth Goddard, before turning away. Radu pulled her toward him, and she didn't resist. Perhaps that was because even if she'd tried, Radu could easily snap her in half. If the Andromedan wanted a hug, the Andromedan got a hug.

"Both of them?" Bova actually showed a spark of interest that looked wholly fake and staged. Then again, any emotion other than "Blah" coming from Bova looked as such. The interesting conclusion one could draw from that is that no one was ever exactly sure what Bova was feeling.

Suzee narrowed her eyes. It was an attempt to look disgusted, but she actually came across as looking constipated.

"Why don't we go to the Command Post," Bova suggested, "Where we can be at the controls and actually get us back on course where we're supposed to be. It's much better than discussing this in a corridor."

"But what about…" Harlan gestured to the Commander.

"I think he'll still be there when we get back," Bova responded.

"You're taking this awfully well," Rosie said tearfully. Evidently, the situation finally caught up with her. She was overheating a bit, which was scorching the front of Radu's uniform. Unfortunately, try as he might, Radu couldn't pry her off. Thankfully, her slight concern as to where Bova's priorities were eventually led her to let go, and he was saved from a death by combustion.

"Someone has to be logical," he said. Everyone looked at Harlan, then everyone, at the same time, realized that Harlan in charge was probably the worst thing that could possibly happen to the ship, and they looked at Radu. Radu looked like he could be the leader-type for now, even if he was distractedly picking bits of charred polyester off burned skin.

Eventually, he realized they were watching him. Even Harlan. "…Let's go to the Command Post," he said. That's what everyone wanted him to say anyway.

Suzee and Harlan decided to walk it, so they could look for Thelma on the way there. Radu and Rosie were going to take the jumptube to the medlab to bandage Radu's burned torso, then meet the others at the Command Post. Bova was just going to take the jumptube directly there, since he didn't really have anything better to do – or so he claimed. The others offered him an obligatory you're-obviously-the-culprit stare as he programmed his destination into the jumptube first. Radu and Rosie followed, after Harlan told them needlessly to stay safe.

When Harlan and Suzee arrived in the ComPost some ten minutes later, they found two piles of red gel. One in front of one exit tube, and one in front of the other. There was red gel dripping from each, as well.

Harlan asked, "Where are the others."

Suzee blinked incredulously at the two piles. She pointed to one. "Well, there's Rosie." And she gestured to the other one, feeling as if she'd very much like to vomit. "And there's Radu."

"Oh. They beat us here then," Harlan added stupidly, looking down at the piles. Then he pondered. "Actually, I think _that _one might be Rosie…"

"Do you understand what's happening?" Suzee asked, her voice panicked. "Someone's killing off the crew – We're next!"

Harlan understood. And for some reason, one of the Christa's monitors zoomed in on his ass.

"Suzee, head to the engine room and see if you can shut the ship down from there!"

"Alone?"

"No, take Catalina," Harlan said. He thought he was very smart for saying that. "Oh. And don't take the jump tubes."

Too scared to argue, Suzee headed off to the primary engine room while Harlan headed to the Helm. He really wasn't sure what he was going to do from there, except press a couple switches – which he did – and turn a couple dials – which he also did. And then, quite suddenly, a beam crashed down on him, and he stopped pushing switches and turning dials. He also stopped breathing.

Meanwhile in the engine room, Suzee was attempting to shut down the engines. It occurred to her just then to ask _why _she was shutting down the engines, but there was no one to ask except for Catalina, and Catalina really didn't know, either. So she flipped some switches and did some other stuff that looked important. Then the engine exploded. As luck would have it, the power was just _so, _and while it didn't cause the whole ship to disintegrate, it did open a barrier between Catalina's and Suzee's dimensions. Unfortunately, Catalina was, for some reason, pulled into the Christa moments after her best friend's untimely death. Fortunately, she wasn't killed by the explosion, but she did happen to pass away when her blood boiled. The explosion of the engine had left the ship with a new door right out into outer space.

Crippled now, the vessel listed to starboard.

Bova stood along in the hallway, facing toward the engine room where he knew Suzee and Catalina were already dead. They were the last besides himself… And he would have gone with them if not for the fact that he'd absorbed the electrical shock resulting from the explosion. Thank goodness for small favors, at least.

Technically, that didn't matter a whole lot, though. Now that he was alone on the ship, he had a bit of business to take care of. Without moving, without even looking around, he said, "I know you can hear me, and you can respond, if you want to."

Silence.

"Oh, come on. It's practically in the rulebook. You have to tell me your evil plan before you kill me." There was more silence, and then he shrugged, leaned back against a wall, and slid almost bonelessly to the floor. "It's not like I didn't know this was gonna happen. I figured someone would flip eventually. Just didn't figure it would be you."

As if answering the young Uranusian, someone threw what looked to be an Android's limb up the jumptube. Bova looked down at Thelma's arm briefly, then looked toward the exit tube. "I knew it wasn't Thelma," he clarified. He wasn't exactly sure why he was clarifying that, but it felt like the right thing to do. Besides, it filled up the awful silence. Now that the primary engine room was gone and the ship was listing to one side, there just wasn't any mechanical feedback coming from anywhere. It was vaguely disturbing in a way that Bova wholly expected. Oddly enough, he was content.

When one knows they're going to die and they don't have a way out, it's interesting to note that they have a sort of calm descend upon them. In Bova's case, he was trapped on a horribly crippled Starship, some four or five years from home. The rest of the crew – his friends – were gone, but for some reason, he was fine with that. He hadn't even thought to shed a tear, because he'd be joining them soon enough.

Actually, Bova thought to himself, that calm was pretty much unique to Uranusians. Davenport would probably be running around panicking if faced with death. Of course, she wouldn't be doing that now, as she was very dead.

"If you're not going to talk, I'm not going to move. That will make your job a bit harder, won't it?"

There a hiss of static, which was probably wholly unnecessary. It certainly added to the overall dramatic effect, though. The corridor was draped with loose wiring. Panels were coming loose from the walls, and the lighting was flickering in its death throes. The static, thought Bova, was an absolutely perfect touch. However, as he tried to figure out where it was coming from, he numbly noted the fact that all the com units seemed to be functioning.

There was more static. Something seemed to be forming itself into words. When at last the voice became intelligible, it was course. Probably female, though there was too much interference to tell.

"You're right. I'm going to have to kill you now. You might be relieved that I've saved you for last."

"Why?" Bova wondered.

"Because you figured it out. I wanted to see how you would impulsively react." There was a pause and a whoosh of air from the jumptubes. A laugh?

"I don't impulsively do anything," Bova returned. The voice didn't respond for a while. It seemed to be contemplating this.

Then it said: "Were you not upset when they thought you were the murderer?"

"If they'd killed me, would it have mattered?"

The voice paused again for a moment. "…You are infuriating."

"I've heard as much." Now that he was making some headway, he pushed himself to his feet, pacing back and forth over the fallen panels. At one point, he heard a dull snap from under one, and wondered if he'd stepped on the line that provided the corridor with oxygen. When he was still breathing a minute later, all he did was shrug to himself and listen to the static a bit more. She was still there, but, Bova pondered with satisfaction, he'd actually managed to stump her. She didn't know how to react to him. Eventually, he spoke. "I figured you were more than just what we thought you were. Right from the start, I mean."

"And yet you still used me. Not once was I shown any sort of appreciation. Not once."

"You realize how incredibly cliché this is sounding?" Bova asked. The voice didn't seem to hear him though, because it just continued on.

"…Just like those that came before you. They had to go, too, you know… I was hoping that when I found _you,_ things would be different. That misfit space cadets would know the meaning and value of appreciation… But I was wrong. You grew. You developed. Then you got too proud. I have no other choice."

To this, Bova shrugged. "A sentient spaceship has to do what a sentient spaceship has to do."

In response, Christa opened the airlock door to the now-destroyed engine room, and Bova was sucked out into space. She was somewhat relieved that the boy felt very little pain before he died; she'd always liked him best.

The irony of this isn't the fact that the Christa had crippled herself beyond the ability to go anywhere and meet new people and experience new places. It was that she was going to spend an eternity dead in space, and after three hours, she realized that she was horribly lonely.


End file.
